Savoring Life.

Hugging Trees

Sunday I made waffles for the family for breakfast. I looked for something crispy, high in protein, and healthy. Enter: Tree Hugger Waffles

¾ c garbanzo beans, canned and PUREED!

½ cup vanilla hemp milk (probably a little more)

1/3 cup egg white

1tsp Vanilla extract

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp coconut flakes

Salt

2 tbsp agave nectar

1.5 cup whole wheat white flour

1 tbsp baking powder

¼ cup wheat germ

Combine the Dry, combine the Wet, employ the muffin method and cook in a hot Belgian Waffle maker.

These were so good, I loved the flavor. Simultaneously, they were very dense and not at all fluffy. I actually thought it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but my Father thought different… He wasn’t a fan and titled them “Tree Hugger Waffles”… Fine with me! They were topped with strawberries, cherries, some nuts, and rhubarb syrup.

To make rhubarb syrup, I combined rhubarb with syrup from Christmas actually; it was a peach wine sugar vanilla bean reduction we poached peaches in. It came out really yummy but made me really sick. I can’t handle pure sugar like that!

For lunch, I had a little salad with a black bean burger… we were out of everything!

I had an apple in “brownie protein brownie batter, and a Clif z-bar later as a snack. Um… yah, about that sugar thing…

We went to Aunt Di’s for dinner, and I was so hungry I was sick (we ate really late) so I had a bunch of garden herb Triscuts. These are delicious by the way! For dinner, I had an ear of corn and a couple potatoes dipped in A1 and felt really sick. I laid down the rest of the night with an intense stomach ache, and then took a Tums for my belly, an Aleve for my ankle and Benadryl to fall asleep.

I am Meagan, and I am an OTC Drug attic. That’s sad. I used to take Tums every day when my stomach was at its worst, but now I rarely need them. The Aleve is the Orthepist’s orders, and my stomach hurt so bad I just wanted to pass out in bed. The OTC drugs need to stop.

MONDAY

French toast zucchini bread oatmeal with strawberries, cherries and peanut butter. For the first time, I didn’t polish off breakfast.

Here are my thoughts on counting calories: Last year, when we went to the nutritionist, she had me on a food plan, but having other people telling me what to eat doesn’t work too well… (I don’t necessarily feel like eggs and yogurt for breakfast, I want cereal with walnuts… etc) so she said it was fine as long as I employed most of the principles and kept tract of my calories, making sure I was getting 2800+. This is when I got into the habit of counting, and it truthfully did help. I’m being super personal here: counting was like stress relief, and instead of dealing with something I would count in my head. It wasn’t for the purpose of losing, or even gaining weight once I was to a happy point, but it became almost a compulsion. Calorie counting really enforced the “clear the plate, lick the bowl, eat a serving” mentality. Even if I was full, I would continue to eat a bowl of oats or drink a smoothie, so my calorie count would be accurate. I know how stupid this sounds, but getting away from it has been the best thing I’ve done in a long time. I gradually tried to stop looking at nutrition facts and eating bread from the bakery or food from little shops that were almost impossible to estimate. Reading Intuitive Eating has also really reinforced that counting isn’t a way to go through life. It takes a weight off your shoulders to finally give it up and helps remove the clean plate compulsion. I recommend any counters out there take a week off, and see how they feel. It feels wonderful to finally have given it up. J

Anyway, I went to work and then PT. Therapy was good today, she had me do the bike, different exercises, lunges, ultrasound and ice massage. I had a cashew & cocoa Raw Revolution bar, and it was delicious!! It tasted like a rich tootsie roll, but was really creamy. The bar had tons of chunks of almonds and cashews, and overall it was really delicious and filling. I had this as an on-the-go lunch at 1:15 and I was full until 5:30!

The Gym:

The Workout

Arm bike: 20 minutes on the armbike, .34 miles

Abs, including planks, 2 min each side

Superman 3 minutes

Glue raises, 8 lb leg raises, black weights

2 more thigh workouts

Shoulder workouts x5, x15-20 x6 lb

Stretching

Swim: 20 minutes

Pool Run: 20 minutes, 25 m hard, 25 m easy

When I got home I showered and got ready, and made a smoothie. It has a scoop (most of a scoop) of vanilla protein powder, one whole kiwi, skin onJ, ½ a frozen banana, and about ½ cup frozen cherries… A couple cubes of ice and unsweetened vanilla hemp. This was so so delicious! Thick and creamy with a tang!

I gained another pound… woo hoo! J

Dinner was so very good! Wakame salad and a brown rice smoked salmon roll. Really? Could this meal be any more complete? Oh, and a cup of miso soup! J

For dessert, I had a Newman’s Own Organic espresso dark chocolate square. It was so good, rich, creamy and silky. I loved this!

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

I think it’s great how you opened up about calorie counting. I know it’s a touchy subject for most people, especially those who have done it. I do do it at the moment. I’ve found it helpful in showing me how much to eat for my activity level, which is definitely more than I would have thought at the beginning of the Summer. I think my trip to Georgia helped in that it took me out of calorie counting and forced me to see how I’d do on my own. I was able to maintain perfectly, but not really gain when I was away. Since then I’ve been more eating what I think I need to gain/maintain and checking the number afterwards and it’s definitely been less stressful than constant counting